Arrival time: 10.00
Weather: A rare dry day with sun! Chilly with a light breeze.
Tackle: 10ft Fishtec Compact Float, link leger, 6lb line.
Baits: Cheese paste.
Fish: Blank

With the water level at Offord showing very high I took a punt on the Chubb Stream. As it turned out the level was up there as well, and more worryingly the water was very coloured.

My first trip for more than two weeks. My thigh/hip had been playing up making walking difficult and the almost incessant rain didn't encourage me to struggle walking along a river bank. With the pain having eased somewhat and the forecast of a dry sunny day, I decided to go for it.

In fact I had been undecided up until the last moment as I had been in Huntingdon the previous afternoon and the water level in the Ouse was high and coloured. And so it turned out when I got to the Chubb Stream. I must admit that I wasn't very hopeful of success.

I went straight to what I call the 'tree swim', a place that had yet to disappoint. But today it did. I tried dropping the cheese paste behind the projecting tree into calmer water but didn't get a touch. I even took a chance fishing from the other side of the tree, where the low branches would have made playing a fish extremely difficult.

But in the end I conceded defeat and moved on.

I decided to move to the swim by the bypass, noisy but previously reliable. On the way I dipped into a couple of likely looking spots but blanked in both. I also lost all my terminal tackle in one trying to cast too close to overhanging branches.

At the bypass swim the area where I would normally sit was under water. I set up on a higher section of bank that in fact gave me a good casting position to place the bait under a raft formed by tree branches laying across part of the stream. Despite some accurate casts placing the bait exactly where I wanted it, yet again I didn't get a touch.

I was by then fairly resigned to the fact that the highly coloured water had turned the chub off, something I had experienced in the past. I nevertheless tried a couple of more swims before actually calling it a day, neither of which broke my duck.

Still, I was pleased to be out by the river. It was a fine day for December especially after so much rain recently. I was also pleased that my aches and pains didn't impede me too much, unlike the last time I was at the Stream, when I suffered greatly.